Content warnings: car accident, grief (parents and close friend), murder, stabbing, suicide, kidnapping, torture.

This book. Wow. I actually listened to the audiobook of this one, which is an experience that I highly recommend. I was hooked to the last page, and even when I finished work I kept listening while I did my chores so that I didn't have to leave the story until I was finished.

Survive the Night is a compelling page-turner of a story, a YA thriller that leans into the fear of being trapped with a stranger to create a claustrophobic sort of fear that left me so, so worried for our main character, Charlie. Charlie is running away from college, trying to get some space and get home to Ohio so she can recover from the guilt and grief she feels about the loss of her best friend, the most recent victim of a serial killer called the Campus Killer.

The time setting for this book was a perfect choice. With no mobile phones, Charlie is truly stranded the moment she gets into the car, so when she starts to realise that Josh might be lying about his identity, she has nowhere to go but onwards. Additionally, Charlie suffers from intense visual hallucinations. These are described in the book as 'movies in her head', but are very much a trauma response that Charlie is coming to terms with. I really enjoy the way these are portrayed. I haven't had hallucinations in a hot minute, but it felt authentic to me in the way it was shown and the way Charlie handles them, and I loved the depth they added to this book as Charlie had to work out whether it was Josh or her brain that was gaslighting her, and by extension the reader. It took 'unreliable narrator' to the extreme, and I really enjoyed it.

I was *completely* taken in by every single one of the plot twists in this book. It had me screeching into Andee's DMs the entire time, as Riley Sager dragged me along for the ride. I finished this book and immediately put a hold on another Riley Sager book at the library because I was sold on this excellent writing style and clever plotting. The ending was a little... out of the blue, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of this book, a lot of which came down to Charlie herself. I *adored* Charlie as the main character. She has strong final girl energy, and I loved how brave she was when I would have just immediately given in and died. It made it so easy to root for her the whole way through, and I was ready to see her kick ass by the time I started getting suspicious of Josh.

My lowest rated Riley Sager! Saw quite a lot of the twists coming so nothing was a surprise but the story was fast-paced and kept me hooked. Sometimes I just want to know that I’m right!

Still really enjoyable and Sager is an auto-buy author for me.

This was the first book I’ve read by this author and I really enjoyed it.
I actually think it would make a really great movie.
Set in the 1990’s my favourite era so I had high hopes for it and it did not disappoint.
Girl gets in car with stranger and bad things happen. All sounds very familiar but that is where you would be wrong with this one.
I found myself getting anxious and very keen to keep reading to see what was going to happen.
This was a real page turner for me.
Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Riley Sager book, but I have been recommended them a lot so was really excited when I got approved for this on Netgalley. I now wish I had read Riley's works a lot sooner! Absolutely gripping storyline, struggled to put it down, and was so annoyed when I had no choice but to when life got in the way. I will definitely be reading more books by this author that's for sure.

This was an absolute wild ride of a book, I ended up enjoying it much more than I expected too. It was a book that I thought for the first 60% it was going to be quite predictable but then a few surprises at the end made me realise how clever the book was. I found this to be a very gripping read and I was hooked form page one and couldn't put the book down.

I enjoyed the plot of this book and the main character was a pretty interesting person. She just wants to get away from her grief and constant memories of a friend who was murdered. But what she gets in a very long night that changes a lot about her life forever.

I like that the book does discuss blame women get blamed for doing the wrong thing rather than the man who actually killed them. It does point out in the book that this shouldn't be the case but it is something that really happens.

I really enjoyed the book and all the twists and turns that made me question what I had believed for most of the book. I wasn't too keen on how things ended but it was a gripping read and ended up being more clever than I expected. Overall a really enjoyable thriller with some clever twists and I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.

Set in 1991, this follows a girl, Charlie, who is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer? Can she survive the night?

This had ALL the twists!! I thought the plot twist had happened, and then there was another, and another! What a wild ride and I cannot put it down.

The main character was utterly frustrating like every stereotypical female protagonist from a horror movie, and the writing wasn’t amazing but this was just so much fun to read.

It was written in a screenplay style and all takes place across 6 hours which make a gripping story.

I enjoy Riley Sager’s books for the escapist quality they have, and this follows type.

AD - This copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Every year I eagerly wait for Riley Sager's newest release and was so excited to read his latest book 'Survive The Night'. But honestly, I have mixed feelings for this one.
In the darkness of the night, two strangers are travelling together in a car, the man behind the wheel might be a killer which means the girl sitting on the passenger seat is in great danger. Will she be able to see the morning light?
The story is fast-paced and thrilling but not as entertaining. The second part of the story is where all the action takes place. And though I couldn't see one of two big twists coming, I had my doubts about the second one where the killer's identity is revealed. But then again the motive behind the killings didn't really make much sense.
Our protagonist Charlie is a highly unlikeable, unreliable and naive character who took the worst kind of decisions throughout the story and completely ignored all the red flags in plain sight.
Despite this I read this book in one sitting and enjoyed my time reading it.
I would be looking forward to the next Riley book.
Overall 3.5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Am I missing something?? I am still pondering if this story being worse than a story line in a B movie is deliberate, but the writing style just did not land it for me. .

You can’t talk about this book without bringing spoilers into it. What I will say I did not like the use of hallucinations as a plot device, I did not like the “silly young girl” troupe, the ending or that the characters did not act in anyway relatable as a women who was a twenty something in the 90s.

Saying that I kept on reading as the plot was so ridiculous I had to find out what happened. I kept waiting for an amazing twist. For me that did not come.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read the book.

I'm finding this hard to rate.
On one hand I felt the near constant need to yell at the main character who seems to make some of the most stupid choices . But on the other hand I couldn't put it down.
It definitely kept me on my toes , sometimes in the most frustrating ways others with my heart pounding turning pages as fast as I can read them .
A mixed bag of surprises and ridiculous choices.
Weird motives and mind wrecking narrative.
Not quite what I expected but still a book that kept my attention.

Really enjoyed this. It was a bit slow to start off with but I liked the unreliable narrator element which added so much suspense and tension to the story. Also loved the movie references and the 90s nostalgia.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #Hodder&Stoughton for a digital advanced reader's copy of #SurviveTheNight by #RileySager in exchange for a genuine review.

I don't know if it was a wise decision to pick this up as my first Sager book but what's done is done. So, I'm rating it 3/5 stars because I despise the main character and just the story itself - it was just pure meh for me. This will not stop me from trying out another Sager book though because I have heard so many good things about his other work. I felt like this book had potential but that potential disappeared into thin air somewhere in the book. The fact that the main character chose to accept a car ride from a stranger even after her friend was murdered was just beyond me. I don't know where her mind was at - her common sense was probably murdered along with her dear friend. I felt like I was watching one of those lame thriller-type movies that like at the end of the movie I'd be like - why'd I waste my life on that. But then like what I said earlier, I will still give his other books a shot because I've heard great things about this author.

This was a fantastic read from start to finish . Another great book from Riley Sager he never seems to disappoint me and I am already looking forward to the next book.

The suspense throughout with a totally gripping storyline . The book was hard to put down from start to finish I was on the edge of my chair swiping quickly just so I could see what happens next thanks so much once again for such a great book.

I found this a really hard read on kindle so had to DNF it. I’m not sure if it was due to my kindle but there were no stops, so no natural way to break the story down into manageable chunks for me to read.

I loved the authors book “Home Before Dark” and with the cover of this one and blurb, I thought I’d really enjoy it too. But I just didn’t.

I will still read this authors future work.

Charlie is desperate to get away from University to escape the guilt she feels after her friend is murdered the same night that Charlie leaves her alone at a nightclub. She posts her request on a ride board and a janitor, Josh, at the University offers her a ride claiming that he is heading home to care for his father who is ill.

After seeming to hit it off, a few inconsistencies show up in Josh's story and Charlie is torn between suspecting something might be off with Charlie and that her own guilt over her friend's death is making her unnecessarily suspicious. Coupled with Charlie's mind's tendency to wander off into a world of her own, she is soon unsure what has and what hasn't happened during the car journey.

The tension and confusion build to a satisfying conclusion.

Menacing Chiller…
Intense suspense from the first page to the very last in this menacing chiller from the pen of a very talented author. Packed with atmospherics and laden with tension this is a one sit, very much edge of seat read. Well woven threads combine to make reading compulsive with a credible narrative but a, perhaps, unreliable narrator. The unexpected twists and turns are thrown at fast pace to a perhaps equally unexpected, denouement. A premise that delivers.

This was a fantastic read from start to finish . Suspense through out with a totally gripping storyline .

I've read a couple of books by this author and so far have really enjoyed them so was really looking forward to this one, the title is intriguing, the blurb really good but I just couldn't for the life of me get properly into it, for me the story just dragged abit and there wasn't alot going on , this hasn't put me off reading other books written by Riley Sager just unfortunately this one was a no from me.

Although I do admit having a few favorites, Sager’s novels never let me down and Survive The Night is yet another corker!

After Charlie’s best friend Maddy is killed by The Campus Killer, Charlie is filled with grief and she feels incredibly guilty for leaving her friend behind on their night out. Charlie is desperate to get away from school and find solace at her grandmother’s house and that’s why she puts up an ad at the university notice board and finds a ride with the unknown Josh.

You have to suspend some disbelief if you want to get the most out of this novel. First off, Charlie is well aware that anyone can have bad intentions and she’s anxious about it, yet she gets into a car with a total stranger without a problem. She doesn’t even make her boyfriend wait with her to see this stranger and check out the scene. Hmm, that’s a bit crazy, right? It’s probably the first but definitely not the last stupid choice she makes that night. It was fun though to see how she gets herself into so much trouble and to worry about her safety. It’s impossible not to root for Charlie in this novel.

The one thing I didn’t really like was that Charlie is turned into an unreliable narrator because she sometimes ‘checks out’ and sees ‘movies in her head’. The result is that you have no choice but to question what is real and what isn’t? It’s a little like an alcoholic character having blackouts, I’m not a fan of this either so I was afraid it wouldn’t work for me after a while and I wouldn’t stay on team Charlie but I’m happy that the author managed to keep me onboard. I was fortunate that the story wasn’t entirely hung up on this technique and we don’t get stuck on it.

The story is fast-paced and even though I now know what’s coming I’d probably still be hiding behind a pillow if Survive The Night is adapted on the big screen. The night was dark, the tension high and unsettling. Is Charlie really getting a ride from the Campus Killer? What are his intentions, why get her in the car when he could have killed her already on campus? How is she going to escape? It is only the start of a very wild ride! My mind went in circles of yes, no, maybe, and I don’t know anymore. I wanted the author to put me out of my misery and when the truth came out my heart certainly did a little flippety flop! The twists in this novel were numerous and I did not see ANY of them coming! Hence why I loved this novel so much :-).

Written in third person, Sager tells the story of Charlie; a University student who's best friend Maddy has been murdered by The Campus Killer.
Unable to continue with her studies Charlie opts to return home by way of a night time ride share with Josh, a stranger she meets at the university signboard.

But Josh is not who he said he was. Yet how can Charlie tell the truth from his lies when she cannot trust her own mind?
Charlie hallucinates whenever her emotions are heightened and her awareness of this condition leaves her (and the reader) uncertain of what is really happening.
Uncertain of what she might have seen the night Maddy was killed.
Uncertain of what is real...


I found Charlie to be a little pithy as a main character although she does have a decent development arc. As for Maddy, I'm glad we only read of her posthumously- I think she'd have irritated me beyond belief in person.

Survive The Night taps into the very current topic of women's safety as Sager taps into the understandable paranoia we all have to maintain in order to keep ourselves out of harms way. Highlighting the difficulty of distinguishing gaslighting and determining where true danger lies.

As is always the way with Sager novels the road is not at all straight. Survive The Night is much more than a tense car ride with a killer.
The plot twists rain down thick and fast as the ending approaches, one with an epilogue that for once I really appreciated.

The critical thinkers among us could find a few plot holes, but who needs to with a story as fun as this one? The pacing is standard for a thriller, holding the readers interest with layers of burning questions as Sager ramps up to a chaotic ending.
I perhaps would have liked better motivations for the evil actions within this story, but maybe thats the point- some people just are.

Riley Sager books never seem to disappoint. I was wary of this title because I have been disappointed by the recent nostalgia for the 90s that, much like the real bad 80s nostalgia, seems to only remember the commercialized version of the decade. I was a college student in 1991. I would not have taken this ride!

Charlie is a movie fanatic. She just needs to get home. Does she take the ride from her boyfriend when he offers? Nah! This bothered me and I was worried for the rest of the ride. The bad decisions from the main character are somewhat redeemed by the twists and turns, some obvious and some not. Giving anything else away would be thoughtless of me.

Though not on par with some of the previous books by Sager, my nostalgia buttons were pushed, my claustrophobia buttons were pushed, and my whodunit buttons were pushed. I will always buy and read Riley Sager books. Always worth my time.